Attorney General William Barr testified today before a House Appropriations subcommittee. Unsurprisingly, media and twitter attention is focused on what AG Barr had to say about the Mueller report. But notably, while AG Barr’s written statement did not even mention the Mueller report, he says a lot about the Trump administration’s budget proposal for the Justice Department and has this paragraph about the FIRST STEP Act:
In December, Congress passed and the President signed the First Step Act of 2018, which seeks to reduce recidivism, refine sentencing laws, and eliminate disproportionate penalties for certain crimes. I intend to robustly fund and diligently implement this bill at the Department. The Act directs the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to evaluate Second Chance Act programs no later than five years after its enactment. Therefore, the FY 2020 Budget requests $1.5 million for NIJ to support the first phase of this evaluation, which will focus on identifying appropriate outcome measures for Second Chance Act programs. In addition, related to the First Step Act, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is requesting $14 million to incentivize the development of innovative pilot projects in reentry and recidivism-reduction approaches. BOP is also requesting $1 million to expand the availability of medication-assisted treatment for inmates with opioid abuse disorders and to enable more inmates to get treatment.